The Chalcolithic and Digital Ages

My Sansui Amplifier

The other day my friend Russ Adams called me on the phone.  He has been calling me about every second day since I was hospitalized this summer.  The conversations are light and witty, and Russ has been a fountain of support throughout this difficult time. 

Somewhere in our conversation, I mentioned that on that day I had bought an amplifier at a thrift store for $45 for my and Aidan's new apartment.  It is a Sansui analogue amplifier, without anything even remotely 'digital' about it. 

To me it is a gem, and represents the very height of sound engineering before that particular world embraced the digital age.  My Sansui receives composite jacks on two sides, and has four channels; it then amplifies the sound beautifully through our speakers. 

Chalcolithic period mace-head

Our conversation then led to the Chalcolithic.  This was the period at the end of the Neolithic and while people were using raw copper to make ornaments and some tools and weapons.  Copper by itself is very soft, and so these copper implements did not completely replace the stone tools and weapons.  The height of stone age manufacture in the Near East was in fact during the Chalcolithic. 

And there it is: the Sansui amplifier was made in a time when other things, like computers, had gone digital, and represent the very best of the analogue amplifier world.  My Sansui analogue amplifier is a Chalcolithic stone tool. 

Thanks, Russ!

Jim

The Pursuit of Happiness

Kira and Aidan, Giza, 2010

I thank all of my friends and family who have given me so much support during these last two months, and especially when I was at my lowest point, about a month ago. Since then, I have begun to find my way forward, slowly climbing out of despair.

My Uncle Allan has reminded me that we humans live a long time.  Even though I am going through some really hard times right now, when put into context of, perhaps, 80 or 90 years in my lifetime and perhaps 40 more to come, these months of tribulation represent a blip. 

My friend Phyllis said that 'everything comes together for good', and another remarked that I had always seemed 'emasculated' in my marriage, and that the break-up of my marriage is an opportunity for me to live a happier life. 

My father-in-law Tom reminded me recently that the ancients thought much about how one might be happy.  To Socrates/Plato, it meant being a good person, which meant being virtuous, and for Aristotle virtue meant finding the mean between opposites.

I have this term off, and my goal is to identify those very things that bring me happiness. I know that I enjoy being around my family members, and perhaps never more so than in these last couple of months.  I have great kids, Aidan and Kira, a sister, brother-in-law Dean, dad, mother-in-law, mom, and father-in-law Tom.  In other times of my life, I have enjoyed going out to pubs with friends and simply hanging out, chatting, lauging, drinking fine beer.  At other times, I have played in Ultimate Frisbee and soccer leagues.  I really like managing and watching my son's soccer team, and although I have recently stepped down as Manager, I have been told that I can return when I am ready to do so.  I love the work that I do, and look forward to getting back into the classroom when I am fit.  Perhaps most of all, I want to find someone to love as much as I have loved my soon-to-be former wife.

And so, I have the intention of becoming a more social human being, a better family man, frisbee player, manager of my son's team, and professor.  I also want to find a partner and to love her completely. 

My goal is to be well on the road to a happier life by the time I turn 50, on January 5th, 2012.